Month: February 2017

The St Augustine Light Station is probably the easiest climb I have experienced at a lighthouse. The current light was completed in 1874 but even at that time, tourism was considered in the construction. The circular stairway was built with handrails and several landings to allow visitors to make the 219 step ascent with ease.

This is not the first lighthouse at St Augustine. There is evidence that towers had been built in this area as early as the late 16th century and there was a previous light built closer to the water in 1824 which collapsed. The existing light was located more inland to get a more stable foundation.From the top, you get great views of St Augustine and the surrounding waters. You can also get a peek at the operating first-order Fresnel lens as it rotates 360° around to spread its light and avoid maritime accidents.

The Light keeper’s house is now a museum and contains a variety of exhibits that are interesting and educational. I would definitely suggest this as a good place to visit if you are touring the St Augustine area.

Of the days we were in St Augustine, this was the one morning that was not rainy. We were planning to sleep in but woke up early anyway and went out to walk the beach. It was still a little misty on the horizon but the sunrise was really nice. I got this shot of the sun rising through the pier with a nice reflection off the wet sand and that told me it would be a good morning.

Life is always more interesting when you get to talking to people. We were walking along the beach in St Augustine, Florida when this guy appeared and started feeding the gulls. I snapped a couple of shots with the birds flocking around him and thought, that’s interesting and then proceeded to look for other subjects.

The next thing I knew, here comes the same guy, walking right up to me and he strikes up a conversation. Where are you from? He says. So, we told him and he proceeded to give us history lessons on St Augustine and nature lessons on the different types of gulls you see here and a short history of his life which turns out to be pretty interesting.

The really amazing thing about this is that my wife and I both saw this guy and were immediately reminded of our good friend, Jim Waters, who passed away just a couple of months ago.

He was just that great, quiet, free-spirit type of guy who would have been very much at home just wandering the beach and talking to people.

We sent a message to Jim’s wife Jan and she said it’s just another instance of Jim walking back into lives of his friends. I can’t agree more!

Well, I am back on my theme of making the best of unfriendly weather. We arrived at St Augustine Beach ready for Florida beach weather and were greeted with gray skies and rain. All the locals were happy because they have been in drought conditions but don’t they know we’re on vacation?

For some people, bad weather is good news as you see with the surfers out on this ugly day. The waves were breaking all around which made for good surfing even if the rest of us were wishing for sunny skies. Things have gotten more to our liking and we’ve been able to see lots of interesting stuff but on this day, I had to look hard for a good subject.

Although I don’t think this is really an antique radio, it has the look and with this black & white version, I think it looks like a step back in history. The Archibald Smith Plantation Home in Roswell dates back to the beginning of the town. Built in 1838 and occupied by the Smith family for almost 150 years, the interior contains a wide variety of pieces from that history. Some of the furnishings are original pieces that the family and servants used and some were added when the home was converted into a museum.

Every time I go here I see something different. It is a great place to dig into local history and experience what southern life was like for the founders of Roswell from the beginning, through the Civil War, the Great Depression and into the modern age.

A view from the top of Amicalola Falls on a rainy day. As you can probably tell from the lack of leaves and brown vegetation, February is still Winter season here but Spring is not far away as we saw when visiting Gibbs Gardens just a little south of here. With no leaves to obstruct, you can really see the valley below and the other mountains in the distance.

I think I need to put together a 4-seasons set of images from here to show how the falls look throughout the year. Sounds like a great excuse to make the trip up here again soon.

I guess the April showers thing doesn’t apply in the Deep South. It is interesting to think about what we consider normal for seasons. I have lived several different places which each have different seasonal norms.

My original idea of what seasons are supposed to be came from growing up in Virginia. This is based on 4 pretty much equal length seasons – Winter: December-February, Spring: March-May, Summer: June-August, Fall: September-November.

Well, that went out the window when my family moved to New Orleans. In Louisiana, the seasons are: Hot, Wet, Hurricane, and Mardi Gras. From there, we moved to Milwaukee where the seasons are Winter and the other half of the year. To round out the seasonal craziness, living in Atlanta means it could be any season pretty much any time (sometimes we seem to have multiple seasons in a day).

Ah well, I definitely prefer spring flowers in February over winter that doesn’t leave until May!